The Games
Gladiatorial games began with an elaborate procession that included the combatants and was led by the sponsor of the games, the editor; in Rome during the imperial period, this usually was the emperor, and in the provinces it was a high-ranking magistrate. The parade and subsequent events were often accompanied by music. The morning's events might begin with mock fights such as this contest. These would be followed by animal displays, sometimes featuring trained animals that performed tricks, but more often staged as hunts (venationes) in which increasingly exotic animals were pitted against each other or hunted and killed by bestiarii. The lunch break was devoted to executions of criminals who had committed particularly heinous crimes—murder, arson, sacrilege. The public nature of the execution made it degrading as well as painful and was intended to serve as a deterrent to others. One form of execution in the arena was damnatio ad bestias, in which the condemned were cast into the arena with violent animals or were made to participate in “dramatic” reenactments of mythological tales in which the “stars” really died. Criminals could also be forced to fight in the arena with no previous training; in such bouts death was a foregone conclusion, since the “victor” had to face further opponents until he died. In extraordinary circumstances, criminals might be forced to stage an elaborate naval battle (naumachia). Although these were usually fought on lakes, some scholars think they might also have been staged in the coliseum. In the afternoon came the high point of the games—individual gladiatorial combats. These were usually matches between gladiators with different types of armor and fighting styles, supervised by a referee carrying a long staff (summa rudis). Although it is popularly believed that these bouts began with the gladiators saying “Those who are about to die salute you.” the only evidence for this phrase is only found in the description of a naumachia staged by Claudius using condemned criminals, where the men supposedly said “Ave, imperator; morituri te salutant." This was certainly not a typical gladiatorial combat and cannot be used as evidence for customary practice. There were, however, many rituals in the arena. When a gladiator had been wounded and wished to concede defeat, he would hold up an index finger. At this point the crowd would indicate with gestures whether they wished the defeated gladiator to be killed or spared. The popular belief is that “thumbs down” meant kill and “thumbs up” meant spare, but we have no visual evidence for this, and the written evidence states that pollicem vertere (“to turn the thumb”) meant kill and pollicem premere (“to press the thumb”) meant spare. This may, in fact, indicate that those who wanted the gladiator killed waved their thumbs in any direction, and those who wanted him spared kept their thumbs pressed against their hands. In any case, the sponsor of the games decided whether or not to give the defeated gladiator a reprieve (missio). If the gladiator was to be killed, he was expected to accept the final blow in a ritualized fashion, without crying out or flinching. Some scholars believe there was also a ritual for removing the bodies of dead gladiators, with a man impersonating Dis Pater (Hades) hitting the body with a hammer to make sure he was really dead and then a slave dragging the body with a hook through a gate called the Porta Libitinensis (Libitina was a death goddess).